Communication networks are known to include a plurality of switches that are interoperably coupled to support communications between users coupled to ports of the communication network. The users may be end users such as personal computers, telephones, facsimile machines, videophones, etc., or may be servers, routers, private branch exchanges (PBX), etc. Such users communicate in various forms, such as voice, data, or a combination thereof, via communication paths supported by the communication network. The communication paths may be established using dedicated links or allocating links upon receipt of communication requests.
Many communication networks include a network management system, such as the 46020 MainStreetXPress Network Manager manufactured and distributed by Newbridge Networks Corporation. The network management system (NMS) manages the communication network by establishing the dedicated communication links, performing diagnostics on switches, links, etc., within the network, configuring the switches and/or links, reporting of network equipment faults and network performance criteria
Multiple system managers may be coupled to the network management system, wherein each of the network service managers is responsible for a portion of the communication network. Such managers interact with the network management system via graphical user interfaces (GUI). The GUI presents the user, i.e., the manager, with representations of the network. At the highest level, the entire network is visible, and navigation techniques allow the manager to zoom in and out of various components that make up the network. The NMS allows each of the managers to perform other operations as well. To perform another operation, the manager chooses an object, which corresponds to a particular component of the network, via the GUI. Having selected the object, the GUI highlights the selected object and displays a menu of operations that may be executed upon the selected object. Note that only a single object per connection can be selected at any one time by any one manager. As such, the NMS supports several computer processes, one for each manager, that are executing simultaneously to manage the communication network.
As communication networks become more sophisticated, or the communication network changes by adding new products and/or more functionality, the software of the NMS may need to be updated for each change of the communication network. As one would expect, updating the NMS software, at times, produces bottlenecks in release of new communication network components and/or supporting software. To overcome this issue, the network was divided into areas of control, wherein each area is managed by an element manager (EM). As such, the task of managing the network is performed by the NMS and possibly one or more element managers. Generally, element-specific actions are handled by the element manager, such as an element configuration, and network actions are handled by the NMS, such as provisioning of bandwidth across multiple network components. Such actions are performed by selecting the network or element object in the appropriate user interface window, and then performing the action. Since there is some overlap between the responsibilities of an element manager and the NMS software, some objects are visible on both the NMS and EM user interfaces.
To maintain and/or improve user friendliness of the NMS and EM software, the user interface appeared as a single interface. As such, the user is able to perform the desired actions and the software determines whether the NMS software or the EM software performs the particular function. In addition, the NMS software and EM software only allows one object to be selected at any given time, regardless of whether the object is managed by the NMS software or the EM software. An issue arises when an object is managed by both the NMS software and the EM software. Since both NMS and EM software have managerial responsibilities for a particular selected object, it may be selected through the NMS software or the EM software. If the object is selected by the NMS software and the NMS software subsequently performs the desired action upon the object, the issue is avoided. The issue, however, arises when the NMS software has selected the object, or the EM software has selected the object, and subsequently selected by the other software (e.g., the NMS software or the EM software). When this happens, the next selected function may not be executed by the correct software on the expected object since there is a variety of objects selected and a variety of software modules involved. As such, the desired operation is not performed properly.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus to manage software objects, such as objects relating to components of a communication network, by multiple software managers.